


Feeling Guilty After Shooting A Man In The Head Is Perfectly Normal

by Rowan12628



Category: Trials and Trebuchets (Podcast)
Genre: Aftermath, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Ft: an absolute baller move by Sarah, I almost yelled while listening to it, I am posting this at 1am and I don't know how to spell their last names I am sorry, Mention of Minor Character Death, Weenie Hollow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:00:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27704504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rowan12628/pseuds/Rowan12628
Summary: The Weenie Hollow gang, after Veldon put down the issue.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4





	Feeling Guilty After Shooting A Man In The Head Is Perfectly Normal

**Author's Note:**

> I have been writing this since the last chapter of the Weenie Hollow special, but I am so bad at staying on task that I only just finished it. Sorry!
> 
> Btw, I know it is annoying to have "Peggy" written in quotation marks all the time, it was annoying for me writing it too, but it felt disingenuous to not put it in quotation marks.
> 
> ✌

  
"Peggy" was not a good person. Nor was "Mary", nor any of the other people she pretended to be.  
No, she was not a good person.

She lied and cheated and scammed to get what she wanted.  
But she had never killed a person before.  
She was a thief, a con artist, a crook, but not a murderer.  
Until now.

"Peggy" didn't regret what she had done. It had been for the "greater good" after all, even if that wasn't something she really believed in.  
She could lie and say it was out of self-preservation, but truth be told, she didn't want the others on the train cart- her... acquaintances- to be hurt either.  
Also, she supposed she didn't want the world to end. That'd be a bummer.  
If the world ended, she wouldn't get paid for the stupid job. That'd be more of a bummer.

Still, it didn't feel good.  
The gun was still gripped tightly in her hand as she sat on a subway bench with the other detectives.  
Her hands were shaking fiercely, eyes open and staring blankly, replaying that moment over and over again in her head.

  
_That weird handsy woman was nearing the train. She was clearly... not alive. It didn't matter, she was a fucking creep._  
_Did that mean the ritual had been completed? It couldn't have been, right? Their sacrifice was still alive._

_If they got their hands on him and managed to sacrifice him... it'd be so much worse than this inappropriately touchy woman coming for them._

_They try to run, she gets him. They stay here, she gets him._  
_There was only one way she and the other three "detectives" got out of this alive._

_Shaking hands pulled a stolen gun from her bag. Aiming was hard when she was frozen and trembling at the same time, her brain only managing to produce one thought- "If he is the sacrifice... He cannot be sacrificed. He needs to fucking die."_  
_He turned to look as she readied herself, obvious fear and betrayal flashing in his eyes._

_"No, n-!" He choked out in desperation, before_

_BANG!_

_The bullet entered through his chin and left through the back of his head, lodging itself in the wall._  
_His skull shattered in a sickening crack, and blood quickly pooled from the wound, the deep crimson staining her boots._

  
"Peg- uh, Mary? Peggy? Whatever your name is? Are you okay?" one of her companions touched her shoulder gently.  
She shrugged them off. She'd had enough of people touching her today.

Humming an affirmative to who she now recognised was Darcy, the way-too-enthusiastic one, "Peggy" was brought back to the present.  
"Fine, yeah. Want to get out of here and get paid as soon as possible. What's it to you? And why are we just fucking sitting here instead of moving?"

"Well, Clarice is dead, the thing's dealt with, and we're all tired and injured. Plus, we probably need to figure out how to explain... all of this to the authorities." The kid, Arthur, answered.  
He was sat on the floor for some damn reason, bandaging up a few cuts and scrapes, with what looked like ripped off pieces of his own coat.

"Yeah, I'm not explaining shit. I'm getting my money and I'm leaving." She stood up, and, instead of walking away, immediately became very dizzy.

Her vision blurred as she swayed on her feet, any thoughts of movement leaving her mind. Lightheaded and breathless, her eyes glazed over.

_'He needs to fucking die.'_  
_"No, n-!"_  
_BANG!_

Instantly, Darcy grabbed her arm and pulled her back down to the bench.  
Jolted back to reality, she quickly yanked her arm away, still staring into the middle-distance.

"Will you stop fucking touching me? What's your goddamn problem?"

"Hey, no need to be like that." The other one, Connie, reprimanded softly.  
"We all just got out of a really traumatic experience. We should stick together and not fight."

"Listen. Peggy. We're all scared. None of us really know what just happened or where we go from here," started Darcy.

"Peggy" scoffed. She wasn't looking at her comrades, unfocused and spaced out, still swaying slightly.  
"Yeah, obviously." she muttered.

"But. We're going to figure it out together. We're friends now, right?" Darcy continued, smiling slightly.  
"I think we need to have a discussion about how to move forward from this whole ordeal."

"Yeah, I'm not your fucking friend."  
"Peggy" stood once more, moving out of range of the others.  
"I came here to do this dumb job, get paid, and go home. I am not... going to sit here while we talk about our 'feelings' and crap." she mocked.  
"Look, I don't even care about the money anymore; divide it amongst yourselves, I'm going home."

The others stood up slowly.

"I mean, we can't stop you-" Arthur began.  
"I absolutely could stop her if I wanted to."  
"Okay, Connie could stop you-"  
"I'm actually a lot stronger than I look, so-"  
"Well, Darcy, you're gonna have to duke that out between the two of youse. Connie is like 8ft tall, so I'm not disputing him, but you-"

"WILL YOU SHUT UP?!"

The three detectives startled into silence.

"It doesn't fucking matter. None of it fucking matters!"  
"Peggy" was gesturing wildly as she spoke, stumbling a little from the force of her arm movements.  
"We did the stupid thing, we saved the goddamn day! And you lot are free to continue this pointless conversation, but I am leaving!"  
She was almost screaming by the end, already-blurry vision further obscured by tears.

"... Okay, then."

".. What?"

"Yeah," replied Darcy, nonchalantly. "If you're so intent on leaving, and dealing with this on you own... go. We're not stopping you."

"But-"

"But what? You don't want to? You're putting on a façade so as to seem less bothered by the fact that you just killed someone?"  
"Peggy" flinched at that.  
"We fucking know, we aren't stupid. And I think I speak for all of us when I say we're sick of your attitude. Like I said, this was a traumatic experience, but there's no need to lash out at us. Go, if you're going."

"And if you're staying, like we know you will, because you're clearly trying to act like you don't care even though we know you do... just maybe stop yelling?" Arthur suggested, in a tone that could be considered sarcastic, but she was too tired to comment on that.

She swayed again on her feet, hands shaking. She was feeling so many emotions, so intensely- most of all anger. At them? At herself? She didn't know. It was a lot.

"I'm... I'm not leaving." She sighed.

Darcy moved closer, and "Peggy" forced herself not to step back. Her eyes were soft and nonjudgemental, having gotten the truth out of her and no longer needing to be harsh.

"We obviously won't force you to talk about your feelings, but we do need to come up with a plan."  
She glanced down to "Peggy"'s hand.  
"And I think step one would be... maybe putting down the gun?"

That snapped her back to reality.  
She hadn't realised that she was still holding it, but as soon as it was brought to her attention, she noticed that her hand hurt. It had been clutching the gun like a lifeline, so tightly it had started to cramp.

_BANG_

"I... I didn't realise... I don't-"

"That's alright, but I'm pretty sure the safety is still off, and with all the gesturing you were doing earlier, we don't want any... accidents to happen."

Arthur scoffed slightly, and Connie lightly nudged him.  
He nearly fell over.

"Peggy" looked down at her hand, endlessly thankful that her finger was not on the trigger during any of that, and nodded slightly.

Darcy moved to her side and gently prised the gun from her grasp, all the while smiling softly at her.  
It was... confusing.

As Darcy carefully guided her to sit back down on the bench, Arthur took the gun and wiped it down, before handing it to Connie who, as the person with the largest arms, chucked it down the subway tunnel, out of sight.

They sat in silence for a while, Darcy's arm still around "Peggy"'s shoulders. It didn't feel uncomfortable like it had when Clarice did it. Rather, it felt... nice. Comforting.  
That was something "Peggy" hadn't felt in a while, but she liked it. She supposed.

  
"I keep hearing him." She whispered hollowly, after a moment.  
"I'm not sorry about it. I would do it again. But I keep hearing him, and I want it to stop."

Her head hung low, eyes trained on the ground. Her boots were still covered in blood. It made her feel sick, but she couldn't tear her eyes away.

"I know what you mean," replied Darcy. "Clarice wasn't... fully there, but I still feel as though I..."  
She trailed off, but she didn't need to finish her sentence for the others to know what she meant.

"Bit of a difference, though. Between exorcising someone who was possessed by a... what did Aimes call it? Great Unknown? And fucking merking an innocent dude because he might be sacrificed."

"Peggy" glared at Arthur.

"Well! If Peggy hadn't, um, 'fucking merked' him, it could have turned out a whole lot worse! So I don't think we should be quite so harsh, okay?" Darcy smiled, a warning tone in her voice.

"I, too, understand how you both feel. Although I wasn't the one who killed those beautiful plants... I promised I would free them. And instead, they got burned."  
A tear slipped down Connie's cheek.

"Again, a bit of a difference-"  
Darcy kicked Arthur.  
"Ow! Fine! I'll shut up!"

"But still, the plants down here... they say they don't blame me. And they say that what you two did, Peggy and Darcy, was very brave."

"I don't... give a crap about what the plants think. But thank you."  
"Thank you, Connie. And thank you, plants!"  
"They can't understand you."  
"Okay."  
"They don't speak Common."  
"Okay."

  
"So... what do we do now?" queried Arthur after a moment. "Are we just gonna... go home? Do we tell Mr Laine anything?"

"Well, the Church of Machines seems to have been destroyed, so I don't see the harm in telling him exactly what happened! Maybe we'll leave out a few details, like the... specifics of how his Inspector friend passed away... but other than that, I see no reason not to tell the truth!" Darcy replied.

"If you want to explain... all of that, be my guest. I'm not even gonna attempt to put that bullshit into words." "Peggy" sighed.

"That's alright, I love wrapping up a good mystery!" Darcy grinned.

They fell into a mostly-comfortable silence.  
"Peggy" focused on the blood on her boots. It was starting to dry into a flaky layer of red coating the bottom of her shoes. Gross.  
Her palms were sweaty, knees weak, and arms heavy. There was blood on her sweater as well. _Really_ gross.

She was still hearing the gunshot ringing in her ears, still had his desperate pleas echoing in her head.

What the others had said was right. She was scared, and guilty, and horrified at herself.  
She needed to get away from it all; get away from her own mind.

  
"Hey, so... After Darcy's explained this whole mess, we should get coffee or something. 'Hang out', I guess."  
She patted Darcy awkwardly on the knee, mainly directing the invitation to her. For some reason.

"Oh, definitely! That sounds absolutely amazing!" Darcy grinned back at her, pulling her closer into the 'side hug' they seemed to be engaged in.  
"Peggy" couldn't understand why it made her feel so warm.

"Great idea. I stopped by Fjell's café this morning- or yesterday, whatever- and their coffee is really good." Arthur added, humming in contentment at the thought.

"I would enjoy getting a coffee with you all. We don't have anything at all in common, but I believe we could become good friends." Connie nodded.

Friends, thought "Peggy".  
That was interesting.  
She had classified the three detectives as acquaintances, but friends...  
That seemed to fit.

"Okay, whatever. Let's go to Fjell's, I guess."

A genuine smile crossed "Peggy"'s face, despite her nonchalant tone of voice.  
Clearly, some sort of therapy had to be worked out, wherein she could work through her feelings about the murder she just committed... among other things.

But for right now this second, with her new friends... she was happy.

**Author's Note:**

> "Peggy" and Darcy kinda have vibes though...  
> Do they listen to Girl in Red?


End file.
